


too cold outside for angels to fly

by jackneph



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Accidental Love Confessions, Awkward Flirting, Christmas Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon, Season/Series 15, and bumps into the quirky farm girl that he imagines as dean, dean is secretly a romantic ok!, destiel christmas fic, finale deniers please interact... we are the same, it just makes sense!, kinda corny tbh, of course cas watches hallmark romcoms and imagines that he's, the dashing and mysterious man that comes into town, yeahhh!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:34:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28270233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jackneph/pseuds/jackneph
Summary: “You know what we’re missing?” Dean says, gesturing to the illuminated tree. “An angel.” He winks, in the direction of Cas.“Dean, I don't think I'll fit on top of the tree.” Cas deadpans.“Why would Cas go on the tree?” Jack asks.“Oh my god.” Sam groans.-or; dean flirts with cas to get his attention but cas is oblivious to his affections, as always
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 8
Kudos: 135





	too cold outside for angels to fly

**Author's Note:**

> takes place after 15x19..... the finale does not exist to me. i am a finale denialist.

Ever since he and Sam finally retired from hunting and ever since Jack had saved Cas from the Empty, Dean had felt like his life was finally starting to come together. 

It definitely helped that it was Christmastime, and the joyful atmosphere in Lebanon was radiating all the way back through the bunker.

“Good morning!” Jack cheers as he walks into the kitchen over to where Dean and Cas are sitting at the kitchen table. He’s wearing reindeer pajamas. It’s a onesie with a hoodie, and the face of the infamous red-nosed reindeer covers Jack’s face when he zips it up over his head. He zips it back down and grins proudly. 

“I picked them out.” Cas says with a fond smile. 

“I like them very much!” Jack says excitedly, looking back and forth between Dean and Cas.

“Looking good, kid.” Dean compliments.

Miracle soon follows behind Jack, running through his legs and straight towards Dean. He’s wearing a festive outfit too, a dog sweater that makes him look like a present wrapped in wool.

Dean bends down as Miracle jumps up and licks his face. “Now, sweetheart, _what_ are you wearing?”

“I think it’s called an ‘ugly sweater.’ Jody sent it to us. For Miracle!” Jack explains.

“Yeah, it’s ugly alright.”

“I think he likes it.” Jack says, kneeling down next to Miracle and petting him.

Sam makes his presence known as he walks in sporting a pair of antlers on top of his messy head of hair.

“Heh, really taking a liking to the nickname ‘Moose’ huh, Sammy?”

Sam’s mouth twitches, like he wants to smile but he doesn’t want to give Dean the benefit of making fun of him. He lifts the box he’s carrying and sets it on the kitchen table. “I found these from when Mrs. Butters decorated our house.”

“Mrs. What?”

“It’s been months and you guys still haven’t told Cas about Mrs. Butters?” Sam pointedly stares down Jack and Dean. 

They glance at each other and shrug. 

“Well, anyway, there’s more of this in storage. You think we should bring them out?” Sam suggests.

“We’re going to have another Christmas?” Jack asks. 

Dean pats the young boy’s head. “Yeah, ‘course. We gotta make new traditions now that we’re all together as a family again.” Dean says, sparing a glance at Cas. 

Cas smiles widely back at him, his nose scrunching up, and Dean wants nothing more than to take a picture of him right now. He wants to make Cas laugh more, smile more. And he’s been thinking that he _can_ now.

Ever since Cas’s confession, his words have been ringing through Dean’s head. 

_You changed me Dean._

_I love you._

And of course Dean loves him back. Of course he wants to tell him. 

But Cas deserves a romantic confession. It has to be somewhere they can watch the sunset and Dean can reach over, lace his fingers through Cas’s, and tell him that words aren’t even enough to describe the emotions that he has for the angel.

But..... there never seems to be the right time. Or, the _perfect_ time. 

“I’m gonna go get the tree from storage. Cas, give me a hand?” Sam asks, interrupting Dean from his thoughts.

“Of course, Sam.” Cas follows him into the hallway.

But every opportunity Dean has to ask Cas out is ripped right before his very eyes. Curse his cockblocking brother.

“Jack, you’re with me.” Dean says. “Let’s deck these halls with so much holly.”

Jack peers into the box, and slowly the tinsel and garland and plastic candy canes start floating out of the box and into the hallway, adorning the walls. Miracle leaps out of Dean’s lap and chases the ornaments as if they were one of his toys.

“Hey, cheating? I don’t have angel mojo like you do to decorate that fast.” Dean complains. 

“I can take care of decorating, Dean.” Jack says. 

Dean grumbles to himself. “So I’m useless, is what you’re saying?”

But Jack has already left the room with the floating holiday trinkets dancing in the air after him. 

༶ ༶ ༶

Later, Dean finds Cas in the kitchen. He has a speck of flour on his cheek, and he’s wearing an apron that says “Ho Ho Ho Where’s the Mistletoe?” Dean didn’t think Cas knew the significance of mistletoe. 

He comes up with a joke to try on his new unsuspecting victim. 

“Hey, Cas.” Dean greets, standing next to the man with a sly smile.

“Hello, Dean.” Cas says looking up from the cookie dough he’s been rolling.

“You still got that picture of you from when we dressed up as cowboys?” Dean asks casually. He had made a couple copies of Cas in a cowboy hat to give to the man he adores, and he still has some for himself which he definitely does _not_ keep in his wallet. 

“Yes, why?”

“Cuz I wanna show Santa what I want for Christmas.” Dean jokes with a grin.

Cas stares blankly for a moment, before he tilts his head and a soft expression adorns his face. “You already have me.” 

Dean sputters out a response, his lips betraying him as he can’t speak a single word except for “Oh.” 

His cheeks flush and he looks up at the ceiling. “You got me there!” he says, back in his bravado persona.

Cas blinks at him, then continues rolling the dough.

Dean sweeps up a piece of raw dough in his finger and goes to lick it before Cas reaches over to lower his arm. 

“Don’t eat it, Dean, you’ll get sick.”

Dean narrows his eyebrows at Cas and Cas is pouting back at him. How can an angel taking the vessel of a middle aged business man be so adorable at times?

“Well you’ll heal me then, won’t you?” Dean asks. “ _Doctor?”_

“Dude, gross,” Sam says, walking into the kitchen. 

Dean turns red. “Oh fuck off, Sam.”

Sam sticks his tongue out before turning his back on his older brother. “You need any help, Cas?” He asks the angel, who is intensely pressing the cookie cutters into the flattened dough.

“Sure, Sam.” Cas moves over and Sam joins him.

Dean waves his hands exasperatedly, both of their backs now turned on him. He comes up behind Cas to peer over his shoulder. 

“Is that supposed to be an angel?” He points towards one of the cookie cutters.

“Yes but, it’s entirely inaccurate. Our true form is not human-like at all, we actually have six sets of wings covered in eyes.“

“Yeah well, these cookie cutters aren’t nearly as cute as the real thing.” Dean says with a smirk.

“Cute?” Cas asks, lost in thought.

“Enough flirting.” Sam groans, as if it was painful to see the two of them constantly orbiting around each other for years. “Are you gonna help or not?”

Flirting? Is that what Dean had been doing? 

He sneaks a glance in Cas’s direction and _oh_ he’s blossoming pink over his cheeks.

Is Dean’s technique that he hadn’t realized he was using until Sam impatiently pointed it out..... _working?_

“Shut up, Sam.” Dean mutters. He glances back at Cas who’s staring straight at him, then quickly looks away. “Give me one of those.” He scoots in between Sam and Cas and takes a cookie cutter in the shape of an elf and starts pressing it into the dough. His cheeks are burning and he tries to hide it by lowering his face and pretending to be concentrated. He feels Sam’s eyes on him, his stupidly over-concerned little brother, and ignores him.

So what if Dean had been flirting? How else is he supposed to approach the feelings he’s been suppressing for years? He never knew that Cas could _love_ but now he knows he can and that most of all, he loves _Dean._

That was too much for Dean’s self-sabotaging heart to process. But, it took time, and it took Cas coming back from the dead for the sixth time for Dean to realize that he has to let Cas know that he loves him too.

༶ ༶ ༶

Later, the four of them surround the plastic tree Sam and Cas put up. It’s decorated beautifully with colorful fairy lights and glass ornaments. 

“You know what we’re missing?” Dean says, gesturing to the illuminated tree. “An angel.” He winks, in the direction of Cas.

“Dean, I don't think I'll fit on top of the tree.” Cas deadpans.

“Why would Cas go on the tree?” Jack asks. 

“Oh my god.” Sam groans.

Dean laughs in spite of himself, but nobody else had gotten the joke. He slaps Cas on the back and lets his hand linger a moment, grazing the angel’s lower back before dropping his hand. 

“I think it’s perfect already.” Cas says.

“Now we put presents under the tree, right?” Jack turns towards Sam.

Sam smiles proudly at his son. All the teaching about holiday traditions Sammy had been giving him are starting to show. “Yup, you and Cas should go shopping now. Dean and I will go when you get back.” 

Cas and Jack leave for the Lebanon shops wearing their normal clothes, since angels aren’t affected by the weather. But the parental instincts of Sam, Dean, and Cas had him wearing a scarf around his neck, just in case newfound Gods get cold like humans do. 

  
  


The second the door is shut, Sam slides toward Dean, a slight smirk tugging at his lips. 

Dean mentally prepares himself for whatever teasing Sam has decided to inflict upon him today. 

“So, what’s going on with you and Cas?” 

“What? W-what’s going on? Nothing. What’s going on with you and Eileen? I mean, no correlation.” Dean says, his eyes shifting side to side. Not smooth at all, he curses in his mind. 

Sam sighs but he looks patient. “I don't know man, but to me it sounds like you’re trying to get in Cas's pants.”

“What! Sam, he’s an angel! I can’t just —“ Dean waves his hands around dramatically. 

“Hey, you got my blessings dude. Just take him out for dinner before you.... you know. Cas deserves to be treated well. He deserves you.”

Dean’s mouth widens slightly. “So you’re cool with ..... me being ..... into Cas?”

“It’s _Cas_.” Sam says, with a gentle smile. “But if it weren’t, I’d be cool with any other guy. Or angel, since Cas technically isn’t a guy but.... you gotta work on your flirting skills, man. It’s painful seeing you throw your best lines at him and Cas completely miss it.”

“You got any better advice then?” 

“Well,” Sam looks thoughtful. “With Eileen, I told her I liked her through touch. You know, grabbing her hand to comfort her and uh, kissing her when I know I wouldn’t see her for a while. I’m not saying you should go right in and kiss Cas but, you can try to touch him more.”

“Okay.” Dean says. “Yeah, uh, thanks Sammy. Never thought I’d be asking _you_ for love advice but ... thanks.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sam asks with a frown. 

Dean lets out a laugh and he walks out of the kitchen, feeling a kick in his step and a flutter in his heart.

༶ ༶ ༶  
  


Later that day, Dean finds Cas in his den, or ‘Dean’s man cave’ as he tried to get everyone to call it. The name doesn’t stick. 

“Hey, bud, whatcha doing?” Dean plops down onto the sofa next to him. 

Cas is distracted, flipping through the channels. An angel of the lord in a man-cave channel surfing, Dean thought he’d never see the day.

“Looking for a movie.” He says after a moment. “A Christmas one. Jack wanted me to find one for us to watch. But I’m looking for this specific channel…”

Dean looks over at the angel who’s still staring intently at the screen. He’s perfectly occupied, not like he would notice if Dean were to —

“Dean, what are you doing?”

Dean quickly retracts his hand from behind the couch. His attempt at putting his arm around Cas’s shoulder had been shot down!

“Oh, uh, just stretching.” Dean says, whistling casually. 

Cas glances at him curiously but then focuses his attention back towards the TV. “Oh, found it.” He says in a satisfied tone.

“So, what’re we watching?” Dean asks.

“The Hallmark channel.”

“Nah, that Hallmark crap? You know they only make those movies to get sales for their cards. Like, are they even trying to make them good? It’s all commercial.” Dean complains.

Cas frowns and _dammit,_ Dean wishes he hadn’t even said anything at all. “Well I enjoy their movies very much. I’ll just go watch them with Jack.“ He stands up to leave the den, presumably to fetch Jack, but Dean follows after him. He catches him by his shoulder and turns him around before he can walk out the door.

“Wait, wait.” Dean says. “Dammit, I didn’t mean to hurt you or anything, Cas.“ He lets out a sigh. “You like them, right? And I like you so, I don’t mind sitting through a couple of those sappy Christmas movies for you.”

Cas stares blankly at Dean, almost as if there was smoke coming out of his ears and his brain was malfunctioning.

“Uh? Cas, buddy, you alright?” Dean asks. He waves a hand in front of Cas’s face, and the angel comes to his sense. 

He bites his lip and averts his eyes. “You mean ‘like’ as a brother, right?”

Dean's eyes widen. Shit, did he just say he likes Cas? In a non-romantic way at all? They were talking about Hallmark movies! And he just blurted his feelings out without even realizing. How ironic...

He’s gotta .... Dean’s gotta do something. 

He puts a hand on Cas’s shoulder to get his attention and their eyes meet.

“No, Cas, I didn’t mean it as a brother.”

Cas’s face wrinkles in confusion. “Then..... as a friend—“

“No, Cas — I should’ve said this a long time ago. I should’ve said this the second you came back to us, I wanted to. I wanted to like, tell you when it’s just the two of us. Make it all romantic, you know? I’d take you for a drive in Baby and we’d stop somewhere, in a nice field, and oh man I’m rambling aren’t I?”

“Dean, what are you saying?” Cas looks lost, and a little hurt. Dean wishes he could take away that pain, but there’s only one truth left to say.

“I love you, Cas.” Dean says. And he laughs lightly, relief flooding out of his lungs. It was so easy to tell him. Of course it was easy, it’s _Cas_.

Cas looks at Dean in that moment, the same way he always has, the look of someone with complete adoration for him. And sometimes it’s so strong that he has to look away. How someone so worthy of everything good in life could look at someone like Dean like _that._ But Dean knows that Cas wants him to believe that he deserves this, deserves _him,_ so he keeps his eye contact. And he sees Cas start to tear up. 

Dean goes on, nothing is keeping him back from pouring out his heart. “I thought you knew, back then, in Purgatory, I was gonna tell you. I couldn’t bear to part with you then, and I can’t bear to part with you now, so you can’t leave me behind. You can’t make any more deals, goddammit. And don’t freaking sacrifice yourself anymore. Cuz there’s nothing worse in this world than losing you.”

His guts starts to twist when he realizes he’s practically ranting at Cas but Cas doesn’t seem to mind. He’s beaming through his tears, and he looks elated to be in Dean’s presence, to be loved so wholly back.

Dean says after a moment. “You got it?”

Cas nods, his eyes still wide and brim with tears. “Got it.” He says. “I never thought you would feel the same way.”

“Well we’re both dumbasses then.” Dean says. “‘Cause I’ve loved you for a very long time.” 

“You know I love you.” Cas says softly. “I adore you more than you could ever imagine.”

And the power of Cas’s words is almost too strong that Dean finds himself stumbling for balance. Cas is still smiling, he has more to say. 

“Everything I have done since I’ve fallen from Heaven is because I love you, before I even realized what loving you meant. But to me, it means more than having my wings and more than being in Heaven. I don’t regret sacrificing my life for you, Dean. And I can’t promise you I won’t do it a thousand times more, but I will stay here with you, as long as you’ll have me.”

“You have _me_ , Cas.” Dean stresses.

He grabs Cas’s hands, because he can now. He tugs him and pulls him into a hug and they stay there for a while, wrapped up in each other’s arms. Dean turns his head into Cas’s neck, pressing his lips into the crook for a quick kiss. Cas shivers against him. They break away, yet still secure in each other’s arms. 

“Actually, I know a movie we could watch.” Cas has a mischievous smile on his face. “I think you’ll like it. It’s a Christmas one, sort of.”

“Oh man, what is it?” Dean asks, feeling like an excited little kid. 

“Die Hard.” Cas says, and his cheerfulness reflects back into Dean’s eyes.

Dean lets out a laugh. “Die Hard? Now that’s a classic. We gotta show Jack that one.”

“Yes.” Cas says, his cheeks glowing. “I’ll go get him. We can watch right now.” And Cas turns to leave, not before pressing a lingering kiss to Dean’s cheek, leaving them both blushing and grinning like two idiots in love. 

Maybe it’s the holiday cheer or the way that simply being with Cas makes Dean feel complete, but he knows that this feeling will last for a very long time. 

**Author's Note:**

> hope y'all enjoy your holidays <33
> 
> treat yourself to some hot cocoa babes u deserve it :-) !!


End file.
